


Bad Boys Do It Better

by MsGordo_Writings



Series: Bad Boys Do It Better [1]
Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:40:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22456621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsGordo_Writings/pseuds/MsGordo_Writings
Summary: Sometimes all you want is just a little bit of the wicked
Relationships: Connor (AtS)/Dawn Summers, Draco Malfoy/Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood/Blaise Zabini
Series: Bad Boys Do It Better [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1615906
Kudos: 5





	Bad Boys Do It Better

**Author's Note:**

> This work belongs to MsGordo (https://archiveofourown.org/users/kipplemine/profile) and has been posted with her express permission in order to preserve it from Yahoo Groups. If I have missed any tags or warnings, please feel free to let me know.

Ginny Weasley, Dawn Summers and Luna Lovegood stood and watched their dates trot dutifully off to fill their glasses at the punch bowl and sighed in unison. Who’d have thought that coming to the celebratory ball for Voldemort’s demise with three of the wizarding world’s biggest heroes would be so…what was the word? “Boring.” Oh yes, that was it.

Ginny smiled as she glanced sideways at the American muggle who had helped co-ordinate the final, all-out attack on the Dark Lord’s stronghold. “Sorry?”

Dawn Summers crossed her arms slightly petulantly over her chest and repeated herself glumly. “Boring.”

Luna giggled lightly and flicked her long flyaway hair back over her shoulders. “Just Harry or the party in general?”

Dawn started to look guilty, thought better of it and shrugged defiantly. “Pretty much all of it.” She let slightly glazed blue eyes drift over the crowded room in search of something to hold her attention. “He just looked so hot on the battlefield and then…”

Ginny smirked. “He turned into Harry?” She chuckled without even making a pretence at guilt. “I love the boy to death, but he could drive a house-elf to drink when he goes off on one of his I’m-so-tortured-and-alone trips.” Her eyes settled on her own date. “Merlin knows what I thought I was doing when I agreed to come here tonight with Seamus Finnegan. I think he spiked my pumpkin juice when he asked me.”

“At least you’re not only here to make someone else jealous.” Luna gestured with a pale hand towards Hermione Granger and then smiled without rancour at Ron as he glared at his friend and her date of Victor Krum. “If he doesn’t tell her how he feels about her soon, I’m going to ask my father to put a front page ad in The Quibbler and announce it for him.”

The three girls sniggered and entertained themselves for a few minutes observing Hermione and Ron pretend not to watch each other and Harry and Seamus try and extricate themselves from the slightly drunken attentions of the Patil sisters. Dawn rolled her eyes as she caught sight of her sister and her two pet vampires enter the room, Spike and Angel both focused more on arguing heatedly with each other than the Slayer they were escorting, and the younger Summers abruptly decided enough was enough. “You guys wanna get out of here for a while? Get some fresh air?”

Ginny and Luna tried their best to looked shocked. “Just abandon our escorts?” Ginny shook her head mock-reproof. “Dawn, that’s rude.”

“So is disembowelling my date with a butter knife, but I swear to God I’ll do it if I have to sit through five more minutes of that man stammering and soulfully staring at me over a plate of sausage rolls.” Dawn’s tart tone of voice had both the English witches tittering with amusement again and she jerked a thumb over at Harry, now engaged in earnest conversation with Hannah Abbott. “C’mon, lets get out of here. They won’t even miss us.”

The three girls thought over their choices for a split second and then began edging back towards the French doors that led to the balcony overlooking the gardens at the Ministry of Magic. Luna bit her lip as she watched Ron scowl at Hermione and cram a cocktail sausage into his mouth. “This is wrong.”

Ginny nodded in agreement as she groped back with her hand to find the brass doorknobs and watched Seamus leer at Padma Patil’s chest. “Very, very wrong.”

Dawn stepped out onto the balcony and sighed with relief as she lost sight of Harry staring with his trademark soul fullness into Hannah’s eyes. “Absolutely wrong. Evil even.” She turned to look over the wrought iron railings into the dark gardens below. “Wanna jump for it or climb down?”

Luna shut the doors to the brightly lit room with a decisive click. “Climbing down is certainly safer…”

Ginny swung a leg over the cold railings and made sure her dress robes were tucked safely out of the way and into her knickers. “But on the other hand the price of a few broken bones is nothing to pay to make sure we avoid those three idiots for as long a humanly possible.”

Dawn grinned and hiked up her own borrowed robes. “Last one to hit the floor and shatter into a million sticky pieces is a rotten egg!” She placed both hands on the railing and jumped to swing herself over. “Tally-hoooo!”

Which is how it came to pass that Blaise Zabini, Draco Malfoy and Connor Angel’s quiet smoke and drinking session in a rather charming gazebo was called on account of a sudden rain of teenage girls crashing through the roof and landing on their poker table.

“Fuck me!” Blaise stared at the array of feminine legs and tangled robes that had just ruined his winning hand.

“No thanks.” A blonde head lifted and peered up at three shocked faces. “Oh no, not you.”

Blaise’s mouth dropped further open. “I beg your pardon?”

Dawn struggled free of Ginny’s weight and sat up with a huff of impatient air. “That’s okay, we’ll let you off. You guys alright?”

“Fine thank you.” Draco Malfoy blinked stunned silver eyes at the three girls hauling themselves to their feet and patting down robes and hair.

“She wasn’t talking to you, Malfoy.” Ginny turned her back on the speechless boy and nodded to her friends. “Well, we all look fine. Ready?”

Blaise scowled. “Hey, what do you mean ‘Oh no, not you’? Do you know who I *am*?”

Luna peered at his outraged face and looked unimpressed. “Unfortunately.” She turned her back on her former Headboy and nodded to her companions. “Shall we go?”

Dawn ignored Blaise’s spluttering. “Works for me.” She took one step forward and then was brought up short by a fist grabbing the neck of her robes and tugging her back off her feet. Considering she was dangling a couple of inches off the floor and nose to nose with a pretty annoyed looking face, Dawn handled the change in plans philosophically. “Oh hell, not you.” She tried an experimental wriggle to free herself and then folded her arms and just settled for a glare at her captor when she ended up swinging side to side like a pendulum. “Well, got something to say, Broodmeister Junior?”

Connor Angel hitched his captive up higher and turned up the wattage on his patented scary glower. The one that had been the last thing many a demon had seen before something sharp and shiny had cut their panicking heads off. “You wrecked our card game.” The glower intensified. “That’s rude.”

Dawn was unimpressed with the glower, mainly because she saw scarier things every day before breakfast and gave her own patented response with a snort. Her foot came back and with great precision – and equal delight – she kicked Connor firmly in the shin and made sure to scrape her four-inch spiky heel all the way down his leg for good measure. The yelp as he dropped her more than made up for landing on her butt for the second time in under two minutes.

Ginny laughed. “I would offer to heal that for you, but I don’t think I like you so I shan’t.” She helped Dawn up off the floor again. “Right, are we ready now?” She looked for the third member of their trio and sighed irritably. “It would seem not.”

Luna peered around Blaise’s shoulder from where she found herself pinned up against the wall of the Ministry by the distinctly annoyed young man and smiled warmly. “I’ll be ready in a minute.” She patted Blaise’s rigid arm. “He’s trying to show me how intimidating he is. Bless him.” She glanced up at Blaise’s unamused face. “Are you finished now, or would you like to push me up against the wall again?”

Blaise’s left eye twitched warningly. “I know who you are. Loony Lovegood.” He looked her up and down with a sneer and ignored her encouraging nod. “Bloody little boggle-eyed Ravenclaw.”

Luna patted Blaise’s shoulder again. “That’s right. Well *done*.” She beamed up at him. “And you’re that poncy, Slytherin twat.” Her eyes skipped to where Draco was still staring in stunned silence at the remains of his card game. “Well, *one* of them anyway.” Blaise reared back slightly, unsure whether he was more shocked at being called a twat to his face or that a *Ravenclaw* had actually uttered the word. Luna on the other hand wasn’t quite finished. “See, Ginny, I told you the Slytherins were brighter than they looked.” She shook her head reprovingly at her sniggering friend. “And you were just so sure they were good for nothing more than lording it over the rest of us and looking rather fetching swishing around all over the place.” Her eyes flashed mischievously as she confided to Blaise in a whisper, “She also said you lot made quite good canon fodder as well, but I don’t think it would be very kind to say that in public, do you?”

Dawn and Ginny exchanged wide grins as Blaise flushed nearly purple with anger and Luna blinked in an excruciating over-abundance of wide-eyed innocence up at him. “Luna, stop tormenting the animals and lets *go*.” Dawn darted an anxious look up at the balcony that had served them so well as an escape route. “We don’t want to get caught down here with them.”

Connor folded his arms and tried the glare again. Then he ground his teeth when he didn’t have anymore of an effect than it did the last time and he was blatantly sniggered at. “What’s that supposed to mean?” He looked Dawn up and down. “If my dad’s good enough for your sister then I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to be seen with me.”

Dawn looked back and howled with laughter. “Are you *kidding* me? Buddy, the hair alone is enough, trust me.” She laughed harder as Connor’s hand flew to his hair anxiously. “And if it’s not the hair, then the attitude is a real turn off.” She warmed to her theme and raised a hand to start ticking off points. “Then there’s the clothes. The ratty sneakers. The pout. Do I have to go on?”

Connor was angry, baffled and a little hurt that his smooth, shiny hair –which he had always thought to better one of his better features – was being so soundly mocked, consequently he wasn’t at his brightest when he said what he said next. “That’s it. I’m telling your sister what you said.”

Dawn looked up from her fingers where she was trying to decide if having skin like a girl’s was a pro or a con and stared incredulously at Connor. “You’re telling on me? To *Buffy*?” At Connor’s firm nod she dropped her hand and started laughing again. “You *wuss*!”

Draco finally tore his eyes away from the wrecked card table where his winning hand had been so cruelly destroyed before he could claim the pot and frowned in confusion. “Wuss?”

Ginny giggled helplessly at the affronted look on Connor’s face. “Big Girl’s Blouse. Jess. Wimp. Pick an insult, any insult.” She stopped giggling as Draco nodded in understanding and smiled hesitantly at her. “What?”

“Nothing.” Draco lost his smile and pulled himself up to his full height as he tugged his robes defensively around himself. “I didn’t say anything.”

Ginny raised an eyebrow and looked him up and down. “I know, that’s why I’m concerned. Shouldn’t you be trying to hex us by now or showering insults on our lineage?” She peered curiously at him in the moonlight. “Did you knock your head when we found you?”

Draco raised his own eyebrow and obligingly delivered his patented sneer. “’Found’ us? I think you mean crashed rudely through the roof of our shelter and ruined a very pleasant evening amongst friends, don’t you?” He sniffed. “Of course I wouldn’t expect anything else from the likes of you.”

Ginny nodded and a flash of relief crossed her face. “Oh thank goodness, that’s more like it, the last thing I want is to have to drag you off to fix concussion or something and ruin what’s left of our own evening.” She clapped her hands together happily. “But you’re your normal unpleasant, slimy, insulting self so we can slip away with a clear conscience. Dawn, Luna; you ready?” She turned her back on Draco who looked as though he’d just been slapped with a dead, decomposing goblin and looked for her friends. “We really should…Oh for goodness sakes *what* are you *doing*?”

Luna turned her attention from where she had Blaise on his knees with his arms twisted up behind his back and one of her dainty feet planted between his shoulder blades. “I was just showing him that funny little move that Dawn showed me this morning. He said that he was going to hex me for calling him a twat and I laughed and said that he couldn’t get his wand out quick enough and then he went for it and then I kicked his legs out from under him and did this.” She beamed with pride as Blaise tried to struggle and swore foully at her feet. “Isn’t it wonderful? I can’t believe I got it exactly right the first time I tried it.”

Ginny nodded somewhat dazedly. “Er, yes, wonderful.” She stealthily palmed her own wand. “Perhaps you ought to let him go, Luna? He doesn’t seem very happy and we really should get going before….”

“Dawn?” All three girls froze as Harry Potter’s unmistakeable voice floated out into the evening air. “Dawn, are you out here?” Dawn, Luna and Ginny looked over head at the balcony and then turned as one to make a dash for the relative safety of the gardens only to be brought up short by Connor and Draco moving swiftly to block their path. “Dawn?” With a final glare at Connor, the girl in question whirled and threw herself under the limited protection afforded by the lip of the balcony and pressed herself tightly up against the wall of the Ministry between Luna and Ginny to try and hide in the shadows of the wall and ruined gazebo.

Blaise scrambled up from his knees, pulled out his wand and pointed it at Luna…and then stopped. And grinned. Evilly. The three girls stared at him with wide eyes and then looked at each other.

Oh *crap*.

“Dawn?” Draco smirked at the plaintive whine in Harry’s voice and crossed his arms over his chest as he beamed at Ginny, Dawn and Luna. They pressed back harder against the wall and looked sick.

“Luna?” Ron’s voice had all three girls cringing and closing their eyes. “Harry, are you sure Dumbledore said he saw them come out here? I can’t…Oi, who’s down there?”

Connor bared his teeth at Dawn as she gulped and then tipped his head back to look up at the balcony. “Me. Who are you?”

Ginny rolled her eyes as Ron muttered, “Me who?” and then stuffed a fist in her mouth to keep from dissolving into nervous giggles as he said, “Lumos!” and the ruined gazebo was shown in stark relief by a steady golden light. “Who’s…oh, Malfoy, Zabini.” Ron’s voice chilled appreciably and the hidden girls could hear the effort it took to continue politely, “I don’t believe I know your friend.”

Draco glared upwards. “No. I don’t believe you do.” His eyes flickered as a stealthy movement announced the three girls attempting to sidle off down the side of the Ministry and towards freedom. “I wouldn’t move if I were you.” They froze along with the boys on the balcony as Blaise toyed with his wand pointedly and Draco looked upwards again to continue speaking to Ron. “The balcony doesn’t seem to be too stable, some kind of the stonework was knocked loose a little while ago and caused some damage.” He swept a casual hand from side to side to indicate the pulverised table and gazebo. “As you can see.”

Connor coughed pointedly and shifted his feet as the girls edged away from where Blaise guarded their escape and they tried to sidle off the other way without tipping Ron and Harry off to their presence. The girls froze again and glared at their three smug captors.

Harry’s voice came from overhead. “What are you doing down there, Malfoy?” His voice took on a definite needling quality as he continued, “I would have thought this was right up your alley, with all the fawning and arse licking going on in that room tonight, you might as well take some advantage out of fighting on the right side for once.”

Dawn’s eyebrows rose in surprise and she stared at Draco’s suddenly bland face and listened to Harry’s sly words. Goddamn, for a minute there the boy-that-bored sounded almost interesting. Almost.

Draco ignored the slight hiss of breath from Luna and Ginny and focused instead on exchanging insults with his long-time enemy. “Well obviously I thought about it, Potter, but I talked it over with Zabini and we decided to be the bigger men and leave all the adulation to you and Weasley.” His mouth stretched in a taunting grin. “It’s fairly obvious you two need the affirmation from the adoring masses more than we do and you can only take being worshiped for so long before it gets a little boring and you need something a little…spicier.” His eyes flickered down from the balcony at a choked sound and he was surprised to see Ginny and Luna stuffing fists in their mouths to muffle an attack of the giggles as Harry spluttered indignantly overhead.

Ron’s angry voice floated down from above, “You take that back, Malfoy! You know me and Harry aren’t into all that nonsense, we’re just doing what Dumbledore asked us to do.”

Blaise grinned and suffered a lightening change of opinion on Luna as she rolled her eyes and mimed sticking two fingers down her throat and throwing up. She abruptly stopped and flushed red as she realised she was being watched and glared at him defiantly. He grinned wider, how very interesting. “We know, Weasley. Merlin forbid you two should ever cut the apron strings and finally do some thinking for yourselves for once.”

Dawn clapped a hand over her mouth and bit her tongue to keep from laughing outright at the irate noises overhead and her eye caught Connor’s amused one as she did so. He looked at her for a moment and then raised an eyebrow that shouldn’t have been in the least bit sexy and Dawn Summers’ knees abruptly lost all interest in keeping her upright and instead tried to liquefy and dump her on the floor at Angel’s son’s feet. Goddammit, there was obviously some kind of genetic pre-programming when you were a Summers that automatically yanked you towards the Aurelius line whether you wanted to or not. Her eyes flickered up and down his body in assessment. And despite all suggestion to the contrary those ratty sneakers were *hot*.

Connor dragged his own startled eyes away from Dawn as her face heated with unmistakable attraction and tried very hard to pretend he was being cool. Which was a lot harder than it looked when you inexplicably found yourself wanting to drag the girl who had insulted you and broken your card table off into the shadows and investigate just what it was about girls from Sunnydale that his father and Spike found so appealing.

Meanwhile Harry and Ron were still sputtering.

“…you bloody turncoat….”

“…sodding liar and bloody *bastard*…”

“…using Dumbledore just so you didn’t get thrown into Azkaban…”

“…always bloody *there*, never caring about anyone else…”

“…watching out for number one…”

Draco looked at Blaise and Blaise looked at Draco and they said in unison, “Pair of tossers.” The two Slytherins grinned and then rolled their eyes as Harry and Ron continued yelling and their dates stood unseen ten feet below them listening with wide eyes and open mouths and increasingly annoyed looks on their faces.

Connor grunted in annoyance as the maddened noise from overhead showed no signs of abating and decided to move things along in his own inimitable style…he bent to retrieve the dagger he had strapped to his ankle, straightened up and then, with a brief squint to check his aim, stepped back and let fly to send it shuddering home in the stonework between Harry and Ron as they leant over the balcony still yelling insults.

There was a very strained silence.

Connor folded his arms over his chest as Blaise and Draco started to laugh at Harry and Ron’s shocked faces and glared upwards, ignoring the three girls all gaping at him below. “Get lost.”

Harry’s throat worked frantically as he tried to get some spit into his mouth and his eyes refused to drag themselves away from the still quivering dagger. “You can’t tell us what to do.”

Connor glared harder and moved a hand warningly behind his back. “I have another dagger.”

Later Dawn wasn’t entirely sure what happened. One minute things were relatively calm as Connor and his two companions faced off against Harry and Ron, the next Blaise shouted “WAND!” and lunged to knock Connor out of the way of a shouted spell overhead and Ginny and Luna had flung themselves out from their hiding place with their own wands drawn and shouted in perfect unison “PETRIFICOUS TOTALIS!”.

The twin thumps from the balcony as two stiff and unresponsive bodies hit the stonework sounded unnaturally loud in the stillness of the dark night.

Draco’s jaw bounced very entertainingly as his eyes darted from the balcony to Ginny and then back to the balcony. “You petrified your brother!”

Ginny sniffed and holstered her wand with a flick of her hair. “I certainly did, what a prat.” She glanced not in the least apologetically at Dawn as the American girl sauntered over to join her friends. “I think Luna broke your date.”

Dawn slapped her hands on her hips and raised an enquiring eyebrow. “Can they still hear us or are they unconscious?”

Luna shoved her own wand away into the sloppy French Braid she had just wound her hair into and smiled happily. “Oh no, they should be able to hear every word we say, they just can’t respond in any way.”

“Good.” Dawn turned her face up to the balcony and her voice rose considerably. “’Cos I don’t date arrogant, uptight goobers that can’t show some common courtesy to people that risked their lives to save people and all the other uptight goobers around here.” She turned to Connor and looked him up and down. “We trashed your card game and this party blows, wanna get out of here?”

Connor stared at her. “What?”

Luna clapped her hands together and beamed approval at her friend. “What a brilliant idea.” She turned guileless blue eyes on the speechless Blaise. “My father said that you were seen in the Wiggly Wand last week, do you think we could go there? It sounds fascinating.”

Blaise choked and managed to splutter, “I don’t think it’s really your kind of place, Lovegood. It’s a little, er…”

“I know exactly what kind of place it is thank you.” Luna caught Dawn’s puzzled expression from the corner of her eye and explained, “They have people, mainly women, dancing around and taking their robes off and I heard there’s a woman that does something absolutely fascinating with a cloud of feathers that she conjures with a wand she keeps in her underwear.” She paused and then shrugged. “Obviously the feathers happen before she takes the underwear off.”

Dawn grinned. “Obviously.”

Ginny nodded and cast one more look up at the balcony. “That’s settled then, you three can be our dates for the evening and we’ll go to the Wiggly Wand.” She raised her voice slightly just to be absolutely sure that Ron heard her. “I heard that they even have male dancers there.”

“Really?” Dawn bounced on the balls of her feet and looked delighted. “Great, let’s go!” 

Draco stared boggle-eyed at the three girls. “We are *not* taking you to a strip club!” He took a step back as three pairs of wide, forlorn eyes stared back at him. “No!”

Connor nudged Blaise inquisitively. “What happens after they take their clothes off?”

Blaise dragged his eyes away from Luna’s hopeful face and tried to tell himself that he wasn’t imagining the weirdest Ravenclaw that Hogwarts had ever seen dressed in nothing more than some silky French knickers and a feather boa. “What?”

Connor mimed desperate confusion. “The women at this club. What happens when they take their clothes off?”

Blaise blinked and tried to focus on the strangely innocent expression on Connor’s face. “Er, they put them back on again I suppose.”

Connor looked even more confused. “What’s the point in that? Don’t they get cold?”

“Nah, what with the swinging around the poles and shaking their high-priced booties, they don’t really have time.” Dawn sidled up to Connor and Blaise and smiled prettily. “They have poles there, right?”

Blaise looked down into her wide blue eyes and nodded dazedly. “Yes. The poles are spelled to flex with the movement of the dancers. They’re very bendy.”

Dawn looked even happier. “Great, sounds like my kind of place, I am *all* about the bendiness.” Her happy look turned very thoughtful. “Do you think they’d let us have a go? I mean, we have just saved the world and all.”

“Certainly not!” Draco glared at Ginny and Luna as they shared enthusiastic looks. “Witches of decent families do not frequent places of…of…”

Luna waved a negligent hand through the air. “Oh that’s all right then. Everyone thinks my father’s barmy and Ginny’s family is poor, we’ll fit right in.” She rubbed her hands together merrily. “Perhaps I could even get an interview with some of the employees for the paper, father will be so pleased.”

“And I’m a Yank muggle and I won’t be here long enough to frequent anything, just visit once or twice.” Dawn nudged Connor and Blaise with a sharp elbow. “Go on, it’ll be fun.”

Blaise fell back on a familiar recourse. “Do you know who I *am*?”

Dawn looked confused and eyed him warily. “Uh, well, not as such, but you fought on the right side in the battle otherwise you wouldn’t be here and, okay, you’ve demonstrated some *severe* personality issues in the last few minutes but I’m kinda prepared to overlook that in light of the fact that there’s three of you and three of us and that works out kinda nicely when we’re planning on running out on the great Bore Wonders up there anyway whether you come with or not and if they *don’t* like you for whatever reason then ten to one I will because, frankly, one more minute of stuttering and soulful staring from Speccy four-eyes and I’d have been drowning myself in the punchbowl. Right, girls?”

Ginny and Luna eyed Blaise and Draco, peered up at the balcony where Harry and Ron were still Petrified and then looked at each other silently. Then they nodded in agreement. “Right.”

“Cool.” Dawn tucked her hand into the crook of Connor’s arm and tugged pointedly. “We should book before Buffy, Spike or your dad come looking for us.” She smiled winningly into his baffled face. “So, Miracle Child, huh? How’s that working out for ya?”

Ginny held out an imperious white hand in Draco’s direction. “Come on, Malfoy, I have this sudden urge to *really* piss my brother off and something tells me you’ll fit the bill exactly.” She grinned as he stared at her hand and then at the inviting twinkle in her eye. “Take a walk on the Weasley side, mate, you’ll love it.”

Blaise stared bug-eyed as Dawn and Ginny led their dazed new dates off into the night and then looked down at what he had been left with. Luna looked him up and down, licked her lips and smiled cheerfully to herself. “Oh yes, you’ll do *very* nicely.” She wrapped a small hand in the front of his robes and yanked sharply. “Come on, we need to get out of her before Seamus comes looking for Harry and Ron and we all get arrested for assaulting them.”

Blaise gaped at the back of her head as she tugged him further into the gardens. “You know, it is usual for the female to wait for the male to ask them out for an assignation rather than for the female to take matters into her own hands.” He slapped lightly at the hold Luna still had on his robes. “Literally in this case.”

A flash of white in the gloom told Blaise that Luna was grinning at him over her shoulder. “Where’s the fun in that? I met the most fascinating woman called Faith this evening and she told me all about her own philosophy that’s stood her in remarkably good stead for a great many years.”

Blaise grunted as he stumbled over something on the path and flailed briefly to keep his already precarious balance. “And that would be?”

This time Luna stopped and turned to face him. She tilted her face up to his and waited until after a moonbeam highlighted her expression before giving him a slow and *very* un-Ravenclaw smile. “Want. Take. Have. Beautiful in its simplicity I’ll think you’ll agree.”

Blaise swallowed heavily and reconsidered the likelihood of getting Luna in feathers and silk before the end of the evening. “Quite.”

Luna’s grin grew wider as the sound of Seamus’ shocked yell echoed through the night as he discovered his friends lying on the balcony. She winked at Blaise. “Of course she gave me another excellent piece of advice that I think is relevant at this moment in time.”

Blaise laughed and winked back. “Let me guess; run?”

Luna grabbed his hand, hiked up her robes and plunged down the path to where she could hear the unrepentant laughter of Ginny and Dawn as they made their own escape. “Actually it was ‘don’t get caught’ but ‘run’ works wonderfully as well.”

And hand in hand, they did.


End file.
